The present invention relates to a hand-held reading head for reading coded identification tags. More specifically, the present invention relates to a hand-held reading head for reading identification tags attached to an object, which tags are either of the bar code type or of the radio frequency signal type.
It is well known to place identifying tags on objects so that the objects can be identified for various purposes. Such identification tags may be, for example, of the bar code type when the bar code is scanned by a light source, in particular a laser light source, and the varying intensity of the light reflected from the bar code tag is then detected to provide a signal indicative of the bar code. This identification signal is commonly fed to a data receiver or host computer to identify the object and/or take some further action. In a similar manner, a radio frequency identification tag may be fixed to an object with the tag normally being of a passive nature which, in response to an interrogating signal, emits a radio frequency signal which is coded to identify the object. In either case, the identification code may a code which is unique to the specific object and/or for example, may indicate a particular owner for a group of such objects. In another example of the latter type situation which is of particular importance, the identifying tags may be affixed to garments or textile objects such as towels or linens in a commercial cleaning establishment so that the textile articles can be separated and identified as to the owner following washing or dry cleaning.
At the present time, both bar code type tags and, more recently and in increasing numbers, radio frequency identification tags are being affixed to such textile type articles. However, the readers presently available can only read either bar code or the radio frequency identifying signal. Thus, if articles containing the two different types of tags are intermingled and simultaneously processed, and subsequently are to be identified, this requires two different types of readers, and in particular hand-held readers. Such a procedure is obviously time consuming and costly.
It is therefore the object of the present invention to overcome the above stated problem regarding the two different types of readers which may be required.